Gitanjali Angmo meets husband Sonam Wangchuk in Jodhpur jail

Gitanjali Angmo, wife of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, met her husband in Jodhpur jail on Tuesday. It was the first meeting since his detention under the National Security Act (NSA).

“Met @Wangchuk66 today with @RitamKhare and got the detention order which we will challenge,” Angmo wrote on X.

She added that Wanghcuk’s “spirit is undaunted.”

“His commitment resolute! His resilience intact! He conveys heartfelt thanks to all for their support and solidarity,” she said.

Before Angmo’s visit, Mustafa Haji, legal adviser of the Leh Apex Body, and Tsetan Dorjey Ley, the activist’s elder brother, had met him in jail on Saturday.

Angmo’s visit came a day after the Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre and the Ladakh administration on her petition seeking Wangchuk’s immediate release from detention under the NSA, 1980.

During Monday’s hearing, on behalf of Angmo, senior advocate Kapil Sibal demanded that the grounds of detention should be served on her.

Without the grounds of detention, the detention order could not be challenged, he submitted.

Regarding Sibal’s request that Angmo be allowed to meet her husband, the court said no such order could be passed since no formal request had yet been made.

“First, make a request, and if it’s rejected, then approach the court,” the Bench told Sibal.

Violence broke out in Leh on September 24 during Wangchuk’s hunger strike when protesters, mostly youth, torched the BJP office, the Leh Hill Council building and several vehicles. Security forces opened fire, resulting in four deaths.

Wangchuk, who had been on a 35-day hunger strike demanding statehood for Ladakh, ended his fast shortly after the violence.

He was subsequently detained under the NSA and shifted to Jodhpur jail. The UT administration described his actions as “prejudicial to the security of the state time and again.”

Earlier, Angmo had told The Tribune that the authorities were yet to provide her with a copy of the detention order and that officials had stopped taking her calls.